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Up to now, I use torrenting as a means to get games but it's only as good as the person who seeds it and even then, it'll die off quickly due to lack of seeders. Now I hear about newsgroups and one of the big thing that put me off was the fact that it required payment. Years ago the idea of paying put me off so I never thought about it but now my curiosity has got the better of me and I want to try it out. Is it really all that it's cracked up to be?

Just wondering. What if I want to find older obscure ISOs? Is there a time limit on the games being stored on usenet?

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Retention depends on your usenet provider, usually between 100 to 200 days.

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Damn. So no trying to find old ISOs from 3 years ago.

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Most likely not. Newsgroups really shine when it comes to the newest releases, but finding older stuff is a matter of luck. You could request an older release, but if you don't have anything to offer don't expect your request to be filled. On the other hand, newsgroups tend to be REALLY fast and tons more reliable than torrents. Some ISP's here in the states provide free access to newsgroups. Try pinging news..com (or net), or call your ISP and ask. It's worth the trouble.

Usenet is a great way to grab stuff. If you want to try out usenet, but don't want to drop too much money at the same time, use usenet-news. Only 5 USD for a 10GB block account. If you do, use my referral link http://Usenet-News.net/?ref=82673

Here's the deal, there is NO free lunch, you get what you pay for basically.

I pay for internet service, a news indexer service and a newshosting service.

What does that get me?

Virtually every f**king game ever made, you name it, no matter how old or crappy.
Every movie ever made, every application ever made, every song ever made, every form of digital data you can think of.
It's not legal by definition. But anyone that thinks that we need all this service JUST for legit use is a flake.

I have broadband, and whatever I am downloading, it comes in at maximum speedall the way through the download, and it isn't being shared, it's coming to me, just me and only me. If you think torrents are cool just because they are free, well you just don't realize how much is actually out there to obtain.

Torrent = bicycle
Broadband with newsindexer+Giganews = space shuttle.
You do get what you pay for.

And if you are North American, you might have heard the term "throttling" which is currently all the latest buzz as the major ISPs are trying their best to throttle (hence the term) the use of torrents by torrent users.

Newsgroups perform at 5-600k on average for dsl broadband, a bit faster on cable. On a throttled broadband service you can assume 30-60 is your expected maximum during most hours. Try downloading something around 5 gigs at 30k

If you rarely download anything, none of the above really matters much though.
But with my newsindexer+Giganews, I could (if I felt like it) download a copy of every Nintendo DS game ever made in a single day without effort.
If you think rapidshare is "nice", picture this, my newsgroup can download DS roms faster than I can type in the game name into the search engine. Thus my download speed is limited only by my typing speed

And at this time, the RIAA and the MPAA and any other industry group, is apparently powerless to impact the use of newsgroups in any fashion.
That's what newsgroups are about.

I use http://www.powerusenet.com/ ; its a giganews reseller, its cheaper than giganews, because it has slightly less retention (125 days...instead of 200). I have a 20mbit down connection and max it out (which like about 2.2 megaBYTES/sec.), so it can grab a dvd sized iso in about 35 mins or so.

as for best client, i like newsleecher, but thats a pay program....if you pay for programs.

newsgroups are great for iso's, not that great for vc games and wiiware (well maybe for you since they seem to have tons of pal stuff) if your into that, have a backup bc torrent account for that stuff.

Giganews has the best retention: 240 days. That's the reason why I use them, mainly.
Got an account on newzbin also, a lot of stuff is referenced on there.

As for clients:
- Grabit is free, but it's not the best. Still a good option.
- Newsleecher isn't free but you can get a cracked version. For many people this is considered the best newsgroup client
- SABNZBd is also a good client (the best IMO) but it doesn't have a GUI. Actually it does, but it's a web interface. It runs in the background. It works under linux, mac OS and Windows.